Carleton’s Journal Assignment w/ NPR Aside from the major essay assignments, I have students keep a three section Journal for in-class exercises, weekly free writing and reading responses. Journaling is an ancient practice and an important opportunity for students to explore and clarify their thinking through writing. In the first section, I begin most classes with a writing prompt on the board so that students immediately focus on writing in their journal instead of conversation or daydreaming. Originally I got many of my prompts from the Book of Questions series but I often invent my own questions to promote discussion, connect ideas and encourage thinking in writing. The free writing section of the Journal is a place where students can write about whatever they please as long as it is not “dear diary” material. I encourage the discussion of ideas, connections between classes and free expression. In this section I require at least three entries per week (full page handwritten or half typed) and one of these must be an entry where students listen to NPR news and then thoughtfully and specifically discuss the news story of their choice. This assignment also allows for interesting comparison of different news sources and their relative quality. The reading response section allows students to voice their initial reactions to a text and then move beyond this to a more critical response that can be used as a springboard for class discussion. Students generally move from simple summary (which I discourage) to a more specific and insightful analysis of their readings thus honing their critical skills. 103 home | course goals | faculty policies | sample assignments | texts reviews | teacher's quick links